Spectrum Wars The Policy and Technology Debate ForalistingofrecenttitlesintheArtechHouse TelecommunicationsLibrary,turntothebackofthisbook. Spectrum Wars The Policy and Technology Debate Jennifer A. Manner Artech House Boston • London www.artechhouse.com LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcatalogrecordofthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. CoverdesignbyGaryRagaglia ©2003ARTECHHOUSE,INC. 685CantonStreet Norwood,MA02062 Theviewsandopinionsinthisbookarethoseoftheauthoranddonotreflecttheviews ofWorldCom,Inc. Allrightsreserved.PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.Nopartofthis bookmaybereproducedorutilizedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechani- cal,includingphotocopying,recording,orbyanyinformationstorageandretrievalsys- tem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. Alltermsmentionedinthisbookthatareknowntobetrademarksorservicemarks havebeenappropriatelycapitalized.ArtechHousecannotattesttotheaccuracyofthisin- formation.Useofaterminthisbookshouldnotberegardedasaffectingthevalidityof anytrademarkorservicemark. InternationalStandardBookNumber:1-58053-483-x ALibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumberisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. 10987654321 Inlovingmemoryofmyfatherandmyhero,MauriceR.Manner . Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv 1 An Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Anoverview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Internationaloverview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Domesticissues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Spectrumterminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Abriefbackgroundofspectrummanagement . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Companies,governments,andotherinterests . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Incumbentandplanned/newusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Thevariousinterests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Anexampleofthescientificcommunity:radioastronomers . . . . . 20 Publicsafetyuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 vii viii SpectrumWars:ThePolicyandTechnologyDebate Twouniquebattlesforthespectrumresourcefornewservices . . . . 21 NGSOFSS:takingtheworldbystorm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ThirdgenerationmobileserviceandtheFS:acompromise . . . . . 25 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2 Spectrum Primer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Overviewoftechnicalcharacteristicsoftheradiocommunications spectrumresource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Spectrumscarcityandharmfulinterference . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Theallocationscheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Keytechnicalconsiderationswhenevaluatingspectrumuse . . . . . 42 Otherconsiderations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3 Radio Communications Spectrum and 3 Telecommunications Players. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Wirelessversuswirelinenetworksolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Thekeyparticipants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Governmentuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Telecommunicationsserviceprovidersandbroadcasters. . . . . . . 57 Telecommunicationsequipmentmanufacturers . . . . . . . . . . 60 Consumers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Factorsimpactingtheuseofthespectrumresource. . . . . . . . . 63 Thegovernmentregulatorandtheaccompanyingregulatoryregime. . 64 Marketdemandfortheservice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Amountofspectrumavailableforthesameorsimilaruse . . . . . . 67 Thecostsofobtainingaccesstothespectrumandtheimpacton thebusinesscase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Theavailabilityofterrestrialwirelineinfrastructure . . . . . . . . 68 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Contents ix 4 The Regulatory Regime Governing Spectrum . . . . . 71 Whyistheradiocommunicationsspectrumresourceregulated?. . . . 71 Thegoalsofspectrumregulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Thegoverningregulatorybodies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Theinternationalregulatoryprocess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 AnoverviewoftheITUandtheRadiocommunicationsSector . . . . 78 OverviewoftheITURSector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Theimpactofregionalorganizationsonspectrumregulation. . . . . 81 Theinternationalspectrumallocationprocess . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Technicalissues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 AnoverviewoftheWRCprocess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 5 Domestic Regulation of Spectrum, 5 Part I: International Representation. . . . . . . . . . 93 Overviewofthedomesticregulationoftheradiocommunications spectrumresource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Participationintheinternationalarena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Domesticparticipantsintheinternationalprocess . . . . . . . . . 95 Thedomesticpreparatoryprocessforinternationalmeetings. . . . . 98 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 6 Domestic Regulation of Spectrum, 5 Part II: Allocation, Assignment, and Use. . . . . . . 105 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Importantcornerstonesofdomesticregulation . . . . . . . . . . 107 ImpactoftheWTOAgreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Thedomesticallocationoffrequencybandstoindividualservices . . 110 Theidentificationordesignationofradiocommunications spectrumtospecifieduses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Changestorules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Flexibleuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Relocationofexistingusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114